To address an $18 million reduction in state money, San Diego Community College District trustees yesterday approved a tentative budget for the 2003-04 academic year that would deny access to as many as 6,000 students.

The district will drop about 450 classes, reduce library, tutoring and counseling hours at the three-college district and eliminate more than a dozen managerial positions.

"I think the public should be fighting mad," said district Chancellor Augustine Gallego. "We're concerned about limiting access, but who's going to pay for it?"

The reduction, which accounts for about 5.4 percent of the district's annual budget, results from the state's multibillion-dollar budget gap.

The list of courses that will be dropped at Mesa, City and Miramar colleges next year is not final, but classes with lower enrollments, and vocational and general education courses will be targeted .

The largest of the three campuses, Mesa College, will cut about 300 sections – roughly 5 percent of its offerings. As many as 3,000 students could be denied access to the college next year, said President Constance Carroll, but enrolled students should be able to graduate on a timely basis.

Rather than target classes with smaller numbers of students, which would cut vocational courses disproportionately, Mesa will eliminate courses across the board, Carroll said. By cutting introductory courses along with more advanced classes, Carroll said, it helps avoid having students being admitted but unable to find classes they need to graduate.

Still, students such as Alejandro Magaña, a literature major at City College, say the reductions will push back his graduation.

"I think it's terrible," he said, "particularly at the community college level – where you're talking about working students who need more flexibility."

Many student services throughout the district will also be cut. During the summer session, City College's library will be closed on Fridays and weekends, as will financial aid, admissions and counseling and tutoring offices. All three colleges will likely reduce counseling, admissions and financial aid office hours in the fall and spring.

"Tutoring has been a high priority for us, but we want to avoid layoffs," said Larry Brown, vice president for student services at City College. Already, 14 positions, mainly managerial, have been eliminated, resulting in two layoffs and several reassignments and retirements. More layoffs are possible, Gallego said. Over the next three months, the district must cut $4.5 million more. Gallego said he hopes to find savings through early retirement incentives, unfilled vacant positions and program consolidations, among other things.

Like every other community college district in the state, San Diego's district has complained of disproportionate cuts in the governor's proposed budget. After historical lobbying that included student protests in Sacramento, the governor in May restored about $305 million in Proposition 98 funding and reduced community college cuts to $285 million from $530 million.

Included in those funds is restored money for programs geared at providing financial and academic support for disabled and low-income students. Originally, both programs were slated to be cut more than 40 percent, but nearly all of that was restored in the last version of the budget.

"That's great news for the neediest students," said Barry Garron, a district spokesman.